The mad merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow.
To the Tune of, Dulcina.
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FRom Obrion in Fairy Land,
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the King of Ghosts and shadows there
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Mad Robin I at his command,
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am sent to view the night-sports here:
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What revel rout
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Is kept about,
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In every corner where I go,
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I will ore see,
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And merry be,
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And make good sport with, ho ho ho.
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More swift then lightning can I flie,
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and round about this a[i]r welkin soon,
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And in a minutes space descry
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each thing thatss done beneath the moon
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theres not a Hag,
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nor Ghost shall wag,
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Nor cry Goblin where I do go,
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but Robin I,
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their feats will spy,
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And fear them home with, ho ho ho.
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If any wanderers I meet,
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that from their nightsports do trudg home
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With counterfeiting voice I greet,
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and cause them on with me to roam;
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through woods, through lakes,
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through bogs, through brakes,
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Ore bush and brier with them I go,
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I call upon
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them to come on,
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And went me laughing, ho ho ho.
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Sometimes I meet them like a man,
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sometimes an Ox, sometimes a hound,
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And to a horse I turn me can,
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to trip and trot about them round;
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but if to ride,
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my back they stride,
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More swift then wind away I go,
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ore hedge, and lands,
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through pools and ponds,
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I whirry laughing, ho ho ho.
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When Lads and Lasses merry be,
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with pessets and with junkets fine,
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Unseen of all the company,
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I eat their Cakes and sip the Wine,
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and to make sport,
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I fart and snort,
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And out the Candles I do blow,
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the Maids I kiss,
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they shriek, whos this,
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I answer nought but, ho ho ho.
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Yet now and then the Maids to please,
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I card at midnight up their wool,
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And while they sleep, snort, fart, and sneas,
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with wheel to thread their flax I pull,
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I grind at Mill
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their Mault up still,
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I dress their hemp, I spin their tow,
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if any awake
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and would me take,
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I wend me Laughing, ho ho ho.
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The second Part, to the same Tune.
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WHen House or harth doth fluttish lie,
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I pinch the Maids there black and blew
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And from the bed the bed-cloaths I,
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pull off and lay them naked to view:
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twixt sleep and wake
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I do them take,
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And on the kep cold floor them throw,
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if out they cry,
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then forth five I,
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And loudly Laugh, ho ho ho.
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When any need to borrow ought,
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we lend them what they do require,
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And for the use demand we nought,
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our own is all we do desire;
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if to repay
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they do delay,
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Abroad amongst them then I go,
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and night by night,
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I them affright,
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With pinching, dreams, and ho ho ho.
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When lazy queans have nought to do,
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but study how to cog and lie,
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To make debate and mischief too,
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twixt one another secretly:
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I mark their glose
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and do disclose
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To them that I had wronged so,
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when I have done,
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I get me gone,
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And leave them scolding, ho ho ho.
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When men do traps and engins set,
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in loop-holes where the vermine creep,
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That from their foulds and houses set,
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their ducks and geese, their lambs & sheep
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I spy the gin,
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and enter in,
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And seems a vermine taken so,
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but when they there
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approach me near,
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I leap out laughing, ho ho ho.
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By Wells and Giles in Meadow green,
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we nightly dance our hey day guise,
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And to our Fairy King and Queen,
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we chant our Moon-light harmonies:
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when Larks gin sing,
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away we fling,
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And babes new born steal as we go,
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an Elf in bed
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we leave in stead,
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And wend us Laughing, ho ho ho.
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From Hay-bred Merlins time have I,
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thus mighty reveld too and fro,
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And for my pranks men call me by
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the name of Robin Good-fellow.
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Friends, Ghosts, and Sprites,
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that haunt the nights,
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The Hags and Goblins do me know,
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and Beldams old,
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my feats have told,
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So Vale, Vale, ho ho ho.
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